AKMA’s Random Thoughts

Part of the beauty of this experiment is that it's distributed. We recorded chapters in our own voices, on our own systems, in our own ways. We don't need to consolidate the recordings and host them all in one place. There's a better way using playlists and/or RSS. My recording can stay on my server, George's on his, etc.

If I have time this afternoon (or anyone else can do it) I'll build two playlist files (.m3u and .pls versions) that link to all of the current recordings. I'll do the same using RSS 2.0 with enclosures. That way, all of the chapters will be available virtually in one place. Listeners can access the book using programs like iTunes, Winamp, Zinf, Sonique, SoundJam, etc. Or they can use Radio or any other aggregator that understands RSS 2.0 enclosures and they'll receive new chapters automatically as they are added. If you have limited bandwidth but still want to host your own files, check out Bit Torrent.

Then the question arises, what to do about the playlist(s). Again, there's no need to copy them to multiple locations, since we'd never be able to keep them synchronized. That's an old paradigm. Since AKMA is to blame for staring this whole project (~) I suggest he host the playlists and RSS file on his site. If you want to point to the entire book, all you need is the URLs of those files: playlist or RSS.

Here are two quick-and-dirty playlists:

FreeCulture.pls
FreeCulture.m3u

Both work when explicitly opened in Winamp, but not in Zinf. And you can't just click on the URLs above and expect them to work because from their current location they're not delivered with the proper MIME types. (Please do not link to these URLs as they're only there temporarily.)

If anyone wants to take them, debug them, enhance them, please feel free. I won't have time for at least another day. Likewise, I've created an RSS 2.0 file with enclosures, but it won't work until someone tracks down all the file lengths and assigns unique guids.

I've uploaded the files to a Harvard server. Here are the URLs.

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/blogs/audio/lessigFreeCulture/chapter01a.mp3

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/blogs/audio/lessigFreeCulture/chapter01b.mp3

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/blogs/audio/lessigFreeCulture/chapter03.mp3

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/blogs/audio/lessigFreeCulture/chapter05.mp3

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/blogs/audio/lessigFreeCulture/chapter07.mp3

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/blogs/audio/lessigFreeCulture/chapter11.mp3

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/blogs/audio/lessigFreeCulture/chapter12.mp3

Doug, sorry -- I didn't read your posts before I posted mine. If you'd rather I remove your recording from the Harvard server, I'd be happy to do so, just say the word.

No problem, Dave. This one's for the cause. But I'd be curiuous to get your feedback on the "distributed audiobook" idea using RSS and/or playlists.

This also raises an interesting issue about which I'd like to hear from professor Lessig. I don't believe that any of the MP3 files include attributions either to the reader or to Larry. Under the Creative Commons license he uses one can make a derivative work but only if attribution to the original author is given. Perhaps the ID3 tags embedded within the MP3 files are sufficient.

AKMA, I'll be reading Chapter 14 - Eldred II tonight with Michael Shook on the digital recorder, after kinder get first grade reading homework done and pack it off to bed. Sorry, although I run my solo law practice on a laptop computer and a multifunctional printer, I am still without a website or blog. I am in some Fear and Trembling tackling a section so personally connected to Larry Lessig. but I'll do my best.

Ok, I've done chapter 8 - transformers. My computer made life difficult for me, so I'm afraid that the mp3 is not small. PaulProteus is hosting it for me at http://myweb.jhu.edu/bananas/transformers-a.mp3.

I've sent Paul the original .wav as well and he said he'll compress it for me and find it a home.

If I can get my computer to behave, i'll have another go at the mp3 and try to make it a touch smaller.

I am all set to read the afterword. I should load it by tomorrow at the latest. =)

With thanks to Eric Rice, feel free to download my version of the introduction from here and host it wherever you like.

The mere the morrier.

Chapter 14 is available here.

I've offered up some space on a special audiobook page on my site, and I'm using Andromeda to manage it. I'd love to see some ID3 tags clearly defined, since the program will display them. I'm working on getting more posted, but I need to be in my hotel first. Bandwidth! Heh.

Here is the first half of the afterword.

http://homepages.nyu.edu/~lcb225/Afterword.mp3

George (from allaboutgeorge.com) is either going to try and combine my half I did with his recording of the rest of the afterword.. or....i think he will be posting the second part of the afterword (the continuation of my part)..

I can't really host this file..it is too big..so once someone is able to take it from me..let me know! thanks all

Afterword_pt1

I've just posted short interviews with AKMA and Larry Lessig on IT Conversations. Thanks, AKMA!

I rerecorded my version of the Introduction from scratch, and posted it at the same url as before: http://raph.levien.com/audiobook/freeculture-intro.mp3. I'm fairly pleased with this version, although there's no way I can compare with Dubber's kiwi rendition :)

Thanks, Raph - though there's probably no reason you would want to compare - vive le difference!

I'll wait till I'm back at work and on a university pipe again before downloading and listening to your 23Mb version. I have a humble little 56k modem that is gasping its way through this project.

Linda Blake's MP3 and mine have been successfully combined. (Details are back at the main post.)

I wonder if Ogg Vorbis files could be webbed. I prefer not to use the patented, proprietary mp3 format.